naw j/k but seriously that's cool that you are learning more groundfighting, it's really fun stuff, I do wish my school would work on it a little more.

OW, it's more like get taken down, defend and attack to get on top, not defend/release and get up. We practice bunkai and kata applications for such things. If you're taken down than yes it becomes a fight to get back up because you have more of an advantage being up than down. Sometimes you can't always get up, wuppty do than wrestle anybody can wrestle. Use your head.

At my school there is only white, green, brown, and black. Ofcourse you get stripes on each of your belts before black. I don't know if that's traditional or not, I think it makes more sense than having every color in a crayon box in one room.

Goju, doesn't really have a lot of ground work basicully because we intend on hitting you before anything else. Ofcourse there is takedowns and throws, locks, and such but those come later, and with little practice. Besides, how many throws, locks, and takedowns do you intend on learning. Or even using for that matter.

My school is very traditional though. Everything we do is based off of tradition pretty much.